I Can't Sell Science!

So I'm listening to the West Wing Weekly podcast, which is awesome, so I'm slowly re-watching the West Wing.  Which I love.  Such a great series.  And it's really weird to be watching it 15 years later in the current political climate that we have today.

"I can't sell science" says the snarky pollster in response to a comment that the American Medical Association says that addiction is a medical issue.  The argument is that more money needs to be put into treatment, not enforcement.  And Toby responds, "It's science, why do we need to sell science?"

Because we do.  For some reason science has become politicized in a way that sort of just boggles my mind.  You can use facts to justify your opinion or your policies, but the facts themselves should be undeniable.  And we shouldn't have to "sell" science.  

Science is sexy.  Without science we wouldn't have the internet, iPhones, snapchat, you name it.  But for someone reason "science" fell out of favor.  When you can create your own little dystopian version of reality and have "news channels" reinforce that version of reality, then we need to "sell science."  That's just the sad state of affair we live in today.  

But part of my, the decidedly un-Christian part of me, wants to go up to the science/fact deniers and say fine.  If you don't believe in science.  Then no more healthcare for you.  Medicine is based on science.  So if you don't believe in science, then I don't think you should have healthcare (unless it's the purely religious kind where you pray away your cancer and/or use voodoo dolls.  What-evs.)  

Now the even funnier thing is that in this episode, the challenge is that if you shift resources from enforcement to treatment that you'll be called "soft on crime."  So true.  But today there is a common understanding that the  opioid addiction in our country is out of control and both political parties are looking at real, constructive, ways to deal with it.  Based on science.  

Oh the irony of it all.